Halo 3 Logo Wallpaper

Today's Weekly Update showcases the process of creation and finalization the Halo 3 logo. Thanks to Stosh, who spent some time this week making the logo into a wallpaper, you can now use it as your desktop! You can find all four versions of the wallpaper on the wallpapers page of our Halo 3 section.

Here are the wallpapers, if you don't fee like clicking the above link to the wallpapers section.

Huge update this week, starting with the first ever Bungie Podcast and including real audio from Halo 3. Download it! Listen to it! We also premiere the final Halo 3 logo and debut In-Fusio's Halo Mobile Portal for cellphones. Halo music ringtones are finally here!

This week the Humpday Challenge went internal with three head-to-head Halo 3 matches at Bungie Studios. Six men, three maps and an unlimited amount of vague descriptions. Don’t expect to find screenshots or new info on maps, weapons or multiplayer modes in here.

Arrrr! It be "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and to celebrate we dropped anchor in the port of Tied The Leader to flap jaws with Xerxdeej, he who claims to be a full-beard pirate! Read on to learn about his crew and how shivered be his timbers.

It's like a sonic cathedral of sound! Halo 3's trailer music is just one of the live, orchestrated pieces being blasted out of the aural amphitheater known as the Hollywood Bowl. It's your chance to see and hear a musical spectacular with special guests. It's Video Games Live.

Mazzarin's Demise VI released!

The largest and most popular endurance coop in the Myth community just got a huge upgrade! Mazzarin's Demise VI has been released!

Download it here! Note that if you still have 1.5.1, you need to upgrade to 1.6. The public beta is available here!

I can personally vouch that this plugin is rather fun, especially in a large team who knows what they're doing. Want a large team? No doubt everyone at PlayMyth.net will be playing it! Join in the fun!

Security Alert

It has been brought to our attention that someone is sending fake emails form "bungie.com" (we're actually Bungie.net and we never email you about your account details or security.) and we have to assume the sender of the mails, often with a zip file attachment, is up to no good. Simply delete and ignore them and never, ever open a file from a sender you don't know or trust.

The content of the email may look like this:

Dear user frankie,

It has come to our attention that your Bungie User Profile ( x ) records are out of date. For further details see the attached document.

Thank you for using Bungie!

The Bungie Support Team

Again, these mails are not from us, they're from some jackass. Ignore them.

It was about time we answered some of your mailbag questions, so we did. There's a tiny update on the state of the Podcast and our cowbell-filled theme song. We also chat a wee bit about the Warthog, or more properly, about some of the new AI creeping into Halo 3.

Bungie once again accepted a challenge from a senior citizens center this Wednesday and found ourselves in a familiar position: Eye-level with our ankles. Read on for excruciating details of our defeat. Next week, an orphanage.

Bungie receives a high volume of emails on the subject of jobs. More than anything, people want to know how to get a job at Bungie. Take a look at Bungie's shady hiring practices and see if you're up to leaving behind the concept of "HR violations."

We took some time this week to speak with Recon Number 54, long-time Bungie fan and one of our Master Forum Ninjas. Read about how he first became involved with the community and what's kept him coming back all these years.

A Warning From The Overlord

Today, I had to deal with several users trying to get access to other's Windows Live ID accounts. The culprits were simply tricking some of you into giving your password away. While this particular case has been dealt with, I thought a simple security refresher was in order.

There are three simple things you need to do to remain secure on bungie.net.

1. NEVER give your login or password to anyone who asks. Nobody at Microsoft or Bungie needs to know it, ever. That's the point of using Windows Live ID / Passport. If someone asks you for it, tell them you've forgotten it, and never talk to that person again. You'll be better off.

2. Windows Live ID / Passport will not ask for your login or password without you clicking on the "Sign In" button. If you click a link, and then a page comes up asking for you to login, there is a high probability someone is trying to trick you into getting your password. To be safest, you can do two things. First of all, simply don't trust a Windows Live ID / Passport sign box unless you've clicked on the Sign-in Button yourself. Secondly, don't click the box that says "Save my email address and password." That's just asking for trouble.

3. With regard to groups, make sure you're only giving people permissions in your private groups to those that you trust. Pay attention to the security role editor's warnings about which security permissions can allow other users to completely take over your group. Bungie and/or its representatives generally cannot help you if something goes wrong - nobody hacked your group, you just gave someone permissions who wasn't trustworthy. On that point, by the way - from now on, if I see any group that is participating in the act of taking over other users' private groups, I will delete it without notice.

Wasn't that easy? Please follow the above guidelines. I'll watch this news post's discussion thread for on topic questions, and answer as best I can. On that note, anybody who attempts to post offtopic stuff to that thread, like "First post" and such gets banned for a week - I think you'll agree this is a serious topic, and we don't need that kind of idiocy around here.

HBO's Dialogue Databank

For several years, HBO has been accumulating dialogue from the two Halo games in their dialogue databank. Unbelievably, they continue to add significant batches of clips on a regular basis. Drop by and check out another of HBO's vast resources.

Just thought I'd mention a lesser-known resource that a lot of people could potentially take advantage of. A nod to Captain Spark and Hellhawk for their extraordinarily high volume of submissions over the years.

The usual snooze and news about Bungie Studios during its media lockdown period, but Eric Nylund chats with Bungie about his upcoming Halo novel: Ghosts of Onyx and let's you in on his life, his loves and the creative process that brings you the expanded Halo fiction.

Bungie accepted a challenge from some Halo 2 fans over at the NeoGAF forums this week. Over the course of three very close games, both teams performed admirably but one came to rise above the other. Possibly as a result of chetz and sploitz.

Bungie recently hired another member straight out of the community in the shape of Stosh. We also hired someone striaght out of our own office, Josh Rodgers. How does that work? What does Stosh do? Why is Shishka such a jerk? Read on for answers to these pressing questions and more.

New Action Figures Available

There are two new action figures available from the Bungie Store today! The first is the Master Chief, complete with his trusty Shotgun and Pistol, with a Flood Infection Form. The second is a Jackal who comes with the standard green shield and Plasma Pistol. Read on for images.

Click on the image of the action figure that you want to learn more about:

Soldiers overseas seek help from Halo community

This is Z from Halo3Forum.com. Few days ago I received an email from Brandon who is at a Camp Buehring, Kuwait in support of operations in Iraq. The camp has a recreation center which allows the US Soldiers, Marines, Sailors to interact with eachother and Halo has been a big part of their entertainment. Please read...

We ask that you take a look at the email and help them by sending any
spare controllers, halo discs or consoles. The thread includes some
pictures from their camp in Kuwait along with the US address to the MWR
Services
to send donations to. Support our troops!

This week's update includes news about our Podcast, some interesting playlist data and a couple of interviews and bits of art. All in all, I'd call it a pleasant, friendly update and a good send off to the long weekend.

Halo 2 Tournament on Xbox Live @ oTourneys.com

oTourneys.com is proud to announce that we're hosting a Free FFA Halo 2 tournament over Xbox Live on Saturday September 2nd, with prizes going out to the top competitors.

To sign up for the tournament, register for our forums. Be sure to remember your temporary password, which should be changed under "Options" after you login.

After logging in, go to the "Free Tournaments" section of the forums or simply click here. Reply to the post with the standard requested information, which includes: First Name, E-mail Address, Gamertag.

oTourneys.com hosts weekly FREE Halo 2 tournaments, so if you can't make this one sign-ups for the next one will be soon. If you want to step it up a notch, we offer big cash and other prize tournaments.

The Saturday tournament will be standard oTourneys FFA rules, which include:

An oTourneys.com referee will host the game and make sure everyone is abiding by our basic rules. Killing of the referee is strictly off-limits, he will be sitting on in a lift near the shotgun spawn. The orange primary color is reserved for referees, if you have an orange model you might be subject to changing it.

You will get a clan invite into a temporary Halo 2 tournament clan, please accept it so we can send you party invites when it is time for you to play. Over 100 people have registered for the tournament so far, so there will be plenty of competition and lots of fun!

Prizes are subject to verification and change. Please wait 2 weeks before inquiring about the delivery of your prize.

If you have any questions, ask them in the respected tournament topic or e-mail admin@oTourneys.com.

oTourneys.com is in no way affiliated with Bungie; oTourneys.com is an independent, fan-based entity. Do not contact Bungie for support with issues relating to this tournament.

This week Bungie took on 8-bit Brigade, a group of mature gamers ranging from old to older. They're decrepit and no longer possess the reflexes to compete with our crew of young guns, right? That's what we thought, too.

Hushed Casket Celebrates Fourth Year

Hushed Casket, a long-standing gaming group that has that's been around since the early days of Halo 1, is celebrating its fourth year of existence today. Its founder, rapture, has written a few words about their experiences over the years.

Go check out his post and then explore the site to see what they're all about.

The next Halo novel is Ghosts of Onyx, by Eric Nylund. Let the celebrations begin! Our new publishing partner, Tor, will release the latest novel in November, 2006 continuing and expanding the scenarios and characters created by Nylund, and expanding the Halo universe a little bit more.

This past weekend was the Penny Arcade Expo, hosted locally by the fine fellows over at Penny-Arcade.com. A whole bunch of Bungie dudes made the short trip to Bellevue for the Halo 2 tournament, to take in a couple of Bungie-related panels and just to check out the show.